We can’t always cook fresh every night for various reasons - can’t get to the grocery store 2-3 times a week, or not enough time between afternoon responsibilities and night meetings or kids bedtimes, to name a couple of roadblocks

What’s the Answer? The Freezer is one of them

Here are 6 things I keep in my freezer that allow me to make something quickly:

Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice 3 packs - easy to heat up in 3-5 minutes - microwaving is not my method of choice, but sometimes you have to relax a little

kale - most of mine is from my garden, but you can buy it, strip the tough stems and blanch it in boiling water for a minute. Drain and place in freezer bags. Perfect addition to soups and even with your morning egg and onion dish.

pesto - again something i make up from the summer garden, but you can buy your basil in the market, add some garlic, olive oil and asiago cheese (a la Sweet Basil’s recipe) and freeze in ice cube trays. You can use only what you need when it is in frozen cubes. I use it with whole wheat pasta and in my minestrone soup for an extra bite

wild salmon and organic chicken breasts. I keep individual portions in my freezer so I can quickly defrost one or two or however many I need. You can make a marinade before freezing so they are ready right out of the freezer

frozen vegetables. In this case I buy peas and broccoli. These seem to work best coming from the freezer. Buy totally lain - no added ingredients. You can quickly season them with spices or vinegars as you use them instead of having all sorts of additives in them.

frozen berries. Again, like vegetables, I only keep what I wouldn’t have fresh. They come in handy for a smoothie or to add to whole grain pancakes.

Life is busy for everyone these days and having these food items on hand, ready to prepare in just a few minutes, makes life so much easier.

My blog has an extensive list of easy to make recipes. Go to the blog to find a list of some of my favorites.